Catherine asked for seven days on leave, and Pearl asked for three days. To many who didn't know better, they thought the Miss Gorgeous contest got to them. Actually, something happened to both of them.

Catherine hasn't fully recovered from her rashes. But her face rash got better. She planned to go back after the weekend.

​​

Sean, who hated to take Catherine back to a family home, did the rare thing and took her home. He said grandma wanted to see them.

Catherine would say no if her face rash was there. The rash on her back was there, but they couldn't see. Or Iris would make fun of her.

To her surprise, Pearl was also at Blair's family house. The woman dressed fancy next to her should be Pearl's mother.

"Hello, girls. I'm home," said Catherine.

Ava waved at Catherine, "Come to me, Catherine."

Ever since Ava realized how bright and daring Catherine was at Leydon's house, she became fond of her since she saw her youth in Catherine.

Catherine came to Ava. Her hands were wrapped in Ava's skinny hands.

Ava said, "It's been a long time since you and Sean came home. Antonio and Thomas will be home soon. Let's have a reunion dinner."

Catherine realized it wasn't so much that Ava wanted to see her, but she wanted a family dinner with Sean's big brother and father.

But what are Pearl and her mom doing here, Catherine wondered.

Pearl was looking good. It seemed what Catherine proposed on the phone the other day didn't leave a mark on her.

Catherine said, "I've been missing you so much. But Sean's too busy to take me home."

"I know you're a good girl. Sean could be cold sometimes."

Sean sat next to Ava and took one sip of tea with grace.

"Sean, we should come back more often."

"Okay."

Iris snorted, "Hypocritical!"

Catherine pretended she didn't hear anything. Iris helped others to set up her own family. They were ungrateful. If she didn't mess with Catherine, Catherine would try to get along. But if she messed up with her again, she would teach her a lesson.

"Hey, Catherine," said Bentley holding his toys as he ran over to Catherine.

Catherine grabbed him to let him sit on her lap, "Hey, Bentley. You've grown! Nice boy."

Bentley said, raising his jaw with pride, "Of course. I have to be as tall as a dad to protect mom."

"I know you will grow to be a wonderful man!" said Catherine.

Bentley was particularly fond of Catherine. Every time Catherine came home, he would spend all the time with her. And he didn't have such close relationships with Iris.

Iris said "traitor" in her mind. She has told Bentley not to get close with Catherine. But he didn't care at all.

"Bentley likes Catherine a lot," Dora, Pearl's mom, said.

Catherine said, "Maybe I'm a friendly face, and kids love that."

Pearl tried, and she couldn't smile.

Ava thought so too. Besides, when she had kids with Sean, how nice it would be to have a lovely family.

Vivian brought up the subject of Johnson matters. Dora said, "Karl is getting better. But he's troubled with the business. I don't want to talk about it."

Catherine knew Dora and Pearl came to the help of the Blair family. But they refused to dwell on it. They were playing hard to get.

"I heard there was a fire at the warehouse. All the clothes were gone."Vivian said.

"Yeah, the fire came out of nowhere. The guard is on duty 24/7. But on that night, one employee got drunk, and the camera was sabotaged. Then there was the fire at midnight. He was lucky and got away." said Dora.

Catherine's eyelids suddenly twitched.

Dora continued, "We were scheduled to release fall/winter collection days before. But it was put on hold. We don't have a new line this year and have received a lot of complaints. This is nothing. The problem is we can't make the delivery as stated in the contract and have to pay for a penalty."

Taylor Inwood owned sales channels. But to expand the market, it also chose to cooperate with distributors. The contract they signed was always a huge business.

"How could this happen?" asked Vivian.

"Maybe it's our turn to get unlucky."

Vivian asked, "Could it be done on purpose? Have you offended anybody?"

Pearl clenched her hands.

Vivian said, "If it was done on purpose, they were great at erasing every trace. There were no bread crumbs left to find anything. And who would go against Johnson's family?

Johnson's family had Blair's family to support it. Normally, no one would mess with them. This baffled Karl and Dora so much.

It was easy to make enemies in business. But Johnson's family wasn't bothered with most opponents. Besides, the company computers were supposed to be safe. The hackers could breach their firewall and stole the drafts and planted the virus, which affected all the computers, leading to the ruining of many major files.

Taylor Inwood took a serious hit.

It was one thing they lost money. Taylor Inwood's reputation was compromised too. Since they had no clue who hacked the computers, things would get serious if they were pirated. Taylor Inwood was on the verge of destruction.

"Who would go against you?" Iris was about to say, and Pearl grabbed her hands to stop her.

No one would believe her, Pearl thought. And it would be wise not to let others know what they have done. Pearl had to swallow the consequence on her own.

Catherine looked at Sean. He wasn't acting guilty at all, even if they were talking about him. Even his look never changed.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing."

Catherine was inexperienced. She looked at Sean as he kept calm, not affected at all by what they said.

"Catherine, I want to play."

"Okay."

"I have to see if dad's home."

Bentley raced out of the room, and the babysitter followed behind.

Sean whispered, "Do you like children?"

"They're adorable and innocent. And they are so soft and smell so good."

"If you like them so much, we should have some."

Catherine said, "I'm too young to have babies."

"Then grow up soon."